The Epstein piece
does an excellent job of debunking the claims of the two movies that smear
fracking. But there's a nice bonus: Epstein also describes the dishonest
rhetorical tactics they (and similar Luddite attacks) employ. That can help
numerous people notice when they are being used -- and they will be -- in the
future, and perhaps be able to see through them.

A Heroic Moment in Medicine

Over at
Futility Closet, Greg Ross relays the
story of Evan O'Neill Kane, who wanted to show that some major surgeries could
be performed under local anaesthesia:

[O]n Feb. 15, propped up by pillows on an operating table, he cut
into his own abdomen, using novocaine to dull the pain while a nurse held his
head forward so that he could see the work.

"Just say that I
am getting along all right," he told the New York Times the following
day. "I now know exactly how the patient feels when being operated upon
under local treatment. … I have demonstrated the fact in my own case
that a major operation can be performed by the use of a local anaesthesia
without causing pain more severe than can be borne by the
patient." [minor format edits]

Ross notes that Kane was sixty at the time and would repair his own hernia similarly nearly a decade later.